Courses dealing with the history of technology and its social impact are offered at many colleges and universities in various forms and, often, by engineering departments. Developing and teaching these courses can be enhanced by wise use of video and print resources. This paper explores many of these materials, emphasizing those that are useful to the professor in the classroom, and suggests a general strategy for teaching that emphasizes technological innovations and their social consequences.

Introduction

This paper updates an earlier work presented at the 1997 IEEE-ASEE Frontiers in Education conference in Pittsburgh [1]. The opportunity for this new presentation made it possible to expand the previous paper by mentioning some video resources that have been introduced in the intervening years and by including an increased coverage of print resources. The materials described in this paper should be useful in classroom instruction. Moreover, the discussion below of these video and print resources follows the general outline of each course and shows the emphasis of both courses to be the study of technological innovation and its social consequences.

Excellent video materials and print resources are available to serve almost any aspect of courses on the history of technology and its social impact. These courses support personal and professional enrichment and help lead us toward pursuit of human conduct that respects the environment and promotes the dignity of human beings. Education in the history of technology and its social impact helps students to understand things from a broader perspective and serves as a gateway to the reality of life and work that students and faculty face. At North Dakota State University we have two such courses: Impact of Technology on Society I and II [1]-[2]. Students call the first ""Impact I"" and the second ""Impact II.""

Impact I deals with the history of technology going back to the age of primitive agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution, but focuses primarily on the last 250 years of technological change in Europe and North America [3]-[5]. Impact II considers problems that have been created as the human race has become more technologically dependent [4],[6]-[7]. The videos used in these courses put flesh on what otherwise might be considered by some to be very dry subjects. Several helpful print resources are mentioned later in the paper.

Teaching the History of Technology

Impact I starts at about the time of the American Revolution but brings in relevant material from other epochs and events, such as the Neolithic Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the often ignored revolution in the cultures of the Native American. A good starting point is in the series Alastair Cooke’’s America. Itoffers several episodes useful to the study of the history of technology and its impact on society since this is one of Cooke’’s principal concerns. Inventing a Nation sets the stage for the early development of the United States, and, as it does this, it shines some light on the impact of technology in the early years of the nation as we view the achievements of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and, what Cooke refers to as, ""the rude men of the back country."" These latter individuals established a European agricultural pattern and industrial base in the United States. Alastair Cooke’’s America and other video resources discussed in this paper are available in many public libraries. Sources for other materials presented in this paper are suggested in the body of the paper or in the references [8]-[24]. The European impact on Native Americans is the frequent topic of many parts of Ken Burns’’ The West, Time Warner’’s 500 Nations, and KTCA’’s Dakota Exile (PBS affiliate in St. Paul, MN). A short National Park Service video produced in North Dakota called Maxidiwiac dramatizes a nineteenth century oral history from the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) in North Dakota.

From here the course explores early human history with some documentaries on the transition from hunter-gatherer to domestic agriculture and the consequences of this change. The first two episodes in the Ascent of Man (AOM) series by Jacob Bronowski could be very useful to some especially since they are widely available in public libraries. A newer work is available as the first episode in the Race to Save the Planet (RTSTP) series. Its title, The Environmental Revolution, suggests only one aspect of its content. Similar material is available in early episodes of The Birth ofEurope. Even students from rural areas often have little understanding of human dependence on crop agriculture. In the early United States, Native Americans and American immigrants were confronted with the changes being imposed by technological farming and the Industrial Revolution. Bronowski’’s Drive for Power (DP) gives the European background to the Industrial Revolution. Cooke’’s Domesticating a Wilderness shows how technological farming and the Industrial Revolution began to change America. Bronowski describes the impact of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, mining, iron products for the home, and iron bridges. Cooke tells the story of immigrants in the United States, the building of the transcontinental railroad, and the development of agriculture in the U.S. He also shares with us the tragedy of Wounded Knee and the decline of Native American independence. Starting a few centuries earlier is the history of the clock told from a different perspective in The Secret Life of Machines (TSLM) episode called The Quartz Watch. The clock is a source of social revolution as it divides up a life span into a series of ticks, serves as a model for the development of automation, and takes up the position of a life director. This is nicely portrayed by Bronowski in DP and by Tim Hunkin in the TSLM episode. TSLM episodes can be used with college or university students if they are interspersed with more formal films. They are entertaining while being informative and present significant historical and social impact material.

Moving toward the twentieth century, we view Cooke’’s Money on the Land. This tells the story of the age of the great individual inventors and business tycoons that dominated the changes experienced in the U.S. as the turn of the century approached. Thomas Edison’’s revolving cylinder phonograph is demonstrated. The exploits of the great industrial entrepreneurs such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt are brought to life. But as the nineteen century drew to a close, most Americans were not stakeholders, in the modern sense, in the new technologies, but had become dependent on factories, transportation, and commerce for livelihood or survival.

At this point in Impact I, we follow Edison’’s life and career using Edison’’s Miracle of Light, a film in The AmericanExperience series. Edison’’s invention of sound recording was one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world. He also made major contributions to the entire electric power industry. We get a glimpse of the early history of the General Electric Company and of Westinghouse and learn that the great inventor even had a personal life. Some films on related inventions such as the sewing machine, the refrigerator, the telephone, and, later, the photocopier are available in TSLM. More formal presentations are available in various American Experience and Ken Burns’’ America videos.

One limitation of commonly available video materials about the history of technology is the absence of studies of women’’s contributions. Cooke in Domesticating theWilderness does suggest that women were the reservoir of the nation’’s education, art, and culture in most of the U.S. in the nineteenth century, and Bronowski admits that iron products for the home that can be credited to the Industrial Revolution made a significant contribution to women’’s health. Spiro Kostof’’s America by Design videoserieshas one of its five episodes devoted to The House. The point of view adopted here is that people like Catherine Beecher as well as the architects and engineers of the day helped liberate women by making their lives easier through improved design of living space and through laborsaving inventions. Bill Moyers in America on the Road, one of the studies in his AWalk Through theTwentieth Century (WTTC) series, claims that the popularization of the automobile increased a woman’’s freedom, laying the groundwork for the day when she would be out of the home as much as a man. A strong statement on the distinctive contributions of women in science was made by Dr. Karen Lebacqz in a presentation to the 1993 Summer Theology Conference at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota that is available on videotape (Science, Gender & Technology). Lebacqz’’s work can be supplemented by the well-known study on women in science that appeared in the April 16, 1993 issue of Science. Video resources can be supplemented with a growing body of women’’s literature such as Golden and Friedman’’s Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century [8].

The first decade of this twentieth century brings us to the ""Age of Teddy Roosevelt."" Taylorism and the assembly line are becoming significant. Spiro Kostof provides The Workplace to show the changes in work as a human cultural activity from colonial times all the way to the influence of Taylorism in today’’s office. Moreover, Kostof looks at how the slave economy had an impact on architecture, how the company-town concept failed, and how women, immigrants, and children were fitted into the assembly line.

""Teddy Roosevelt"" can serve the student to see that: (1) technology now was the driving force behind the American military (witness his Great White Navy), (2) there is a beginning of an awakened consciousness of the importance of wildlife and natural resources (TR’’s dramatic expansion of protected public lands and the safeguarding of the Grand Canyon), and (3) social revolution is becoming a major component in American politics (Roosevelt’’s Square Deal). All this we can see in episodes 3 and 4 of the Teddy Roosevelt series (TR, The Story of Theodore Roosevelt) in The American Experience. Episode 3 is devoted to TR’’s presidency and serves Impact I nicely. Episode 4 serves Impact II, especially as we view TR’’s ""big game"" interests as out of place for the generation entering the twenty-first century. The A&E film on the Panama Canal in the Modern Marvels series is appropriate for Impact II as an example of a project that was a great achievement early in the twentieth century, but which, due to its environmental impact, would be nearly impossible today. Kostof’’s film The Shape of the Land and Edmund Bacon’’s The American Urban Experience are appropriate at this point in Impact I since they show the different ways Americans have viewed land and the concept of space from colonial times to the present. Roosevelt’’s commitment to preservation of national antiquities is a significant point shared by Kostof.

In 1849 Commodore Perry forced an American presence on Japan and planted the seeds of a technological revolution in that country. By TR’’s time, through the Meiji Revolution, Japan was becoming a world power and a competitor of the U.S. To understand this and the eventual atomic bombing of Japan in 1945, it is essential to study this period in Japanese history. The Meiji Revolution in The Pacific Century (TPC) series (TR named the twentieth century the Pacific Century) is an efficient way of giving students this understanding. In the Pacific Century, war will be intensely technological. During the Meiji period, due to increased contacts with the rest of the world, the seeds of democracy and social justice are sown in Japan. However, the new leaders of Japan appropriate for themselves the imperialist ambitions of the Western powers.

As the Meiji Revolution occurs in Japan, inventors, engineers, and scientists in the West are busy putting their products in the marketplace. A wealth of video material is available in this area. A&E’’s Subway demonstrates the importance of the development of public transportation in human life. Also from A&E, Wilbur & Orville shows the Wright brothers’’ achievements in powered flight along with their impact on pre-World War I aviation. Questar’’s The Story of Charles A.Lindbergh gives the moving story through original newsreels of this well-known advocate of flying. We explore the myth of Lindbergh, his admiration of Goddard and Neil Armstrong’’s admiration for Lindbergh, and understand Lindbergh as an icon of American aviation. This is an opportunity to include a great woman in American aviation and cultural history: Anne Murrow Lindbergh. A review of her literary contributions is an appropriate lecture topic [9]. The story of the Lindberghs and his subsequent involvement with the American First movement, his initial call for neutrality in World War II, his eventual Allied military service in the Pacific, and his leadership in the aviation industry in the United States in general was important to the American public during the twentieth century. Lindbergh continues to be a subject of current study as writers attempt to understand his life and views [10]. Cooke tells part of this story in The Arsenal in the America series.

Film itself is developed in this era and is used for political and social purposes. Charlie Chaplin’’s Modern Times is available at many video rental stores. However, his concern about the horrors of work on the assembly line and the plight of the working poor doesn’’t seem to communicate well to today’’s students. Nevertheless, in films like this we experience a technology criticizing technology. We also see film and radio used to speculate about technology. The War of the Worlds audiotape is available at many public libraries. It is of interest principally to the scholar.

Many inventions for the human marketplace also lead to the development of weapons of war. The Arsenal summarizes the development of American military technology from colonial times to the present, including the war with Japan and the Cold War nuclear stalemate. This is appropriate near the end of Impact I and serves as an introduction to the more extensive treatment in Impact II. Parallel to this is the development of the American space program covered briefly by Cooke but more extensively in Holiday’’s The Apollo Moon Landings. Supplemented by early newsreel footage shown often on A&E Classroom about Goddard’’s rocket research, Moon Landings brings us to the last decade of the twentieth century.

At the end of Impact I, one or two of the episodes from the Machine ThatChanged the World series such as Giant Brains and Inventing the Future are appropriate, though difficult to obtain. These films are exciting accounts of stories such as Babbage’’s analytical engine, the world’’s first computer programmer (Ada, Countess of Lovelace), the great thrust towards the first electronic computer as for artillery fire control (and the ENIAC), and, finally, the modern personal computer. Two new series on the history of the computer are now available from PBS: Triumph of the Nerds: How the Personal Computer Changed the World and Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet. Some historical material from these series could be used in Impact I and the remainder in Impact II.

The new millennium is the occasion for the production of many video series dealing with twentieth-century history and social problems. Some episodes of People’’s Century (PBS) deal specifically with war, poverty, racism, the media, etc. Released in 1999, this series is a rich resource for Impact I and Impact II. A companion volume [11] should be helpful to the instructor. Peter Jenning’’s video series TheCentury [12] and Tom Brokaw’’s promised video series based on The Greatest Generation could also be useful [13].

Teaching Technology’’s Social Impact

Through lecture and discussion Impact II looks at views of nature and the world as dependent on human value systems. We view the IMAX film entitled Blue Planet (BP). It surveys the earth from space, using mainly space shuttle photos, showing the beauties and the problems of ""our only home,"" our blue planet. BP has a philosophical view that is the subject of class discussion and analysis. Graphic pictures of problems like the clearing of the Amazon rain forest for farming are shared. A common theme of the course is Ian Barbour’’s concept of distributive justice [6]. Both Barbour and BP suggest that the world’’s people should share the earth’’s burdens and benefits. Sweet Fresh Water by David Attenborough in the Living Planet (LP) series follows as we survey water in the world and water as habitat, focusing mainly on the Amazon. Water is more than a resource, a means of public transportation, or a source of energy. It is someone’’s habitat, and the world’’s people need to learn how to share this habitat with other living things. Beyond this, there is an inspiring magnificence or beauty in the water of the world that leads us to be its good stewards.

Print and electronic media are the most important tools in the political life of this country. As we consider the impact of technology on the planet, we must understand the history and impact of the media since it shapes public opinion on these crucial topics. The short film The Radio Set in TSLM does a nice job in showing the history and impact of wireless communication on human life and can be supplemented by material found in the textbooks used in Impact I and II [4]-[6]. A film trilogy by Bill Moyers in WTTC (The Image Makers, World War II--thePropaganda Battle, and The 30-Second President) threads together the interactions among media, business, psychological warfare, human values, and political persuasion, from Rockefeller’’s Bloody Ludlow to the Nixon-Kennedy debates. These three films are essential for anyone wishing to understand the impact of the media in the twentieth century. They also serve as background to Moyers’’ WTTC episode The Arming of the Earth where we are led by Philip J. Noel-Baker, pacifist, later British wartime cabinet member, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, to understand the impact of the submarine, the machine gun, and the airplane in creating the concept of total technological war, which culminated in the twentieth-century wars with Germany and Japan. A ""remake"" of The 30-Second President called The 30-Second Candidate was useful when it was released in 1998, but had little enduring value.

Crusade in the Pacific (CP) communicates the mood of the war years and the magnitude of the Pacific War, showing clearly that it was, in its essence, a great technological war. About 30 minutes of Bloody Iwo (from CP) along with excerpts from the Okinawa episode set the stage for the History Channel’’s Enola Gay (EG). EG carries us from the Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt to the pilots’’ choices and problems in dropping Little Boy and Fat Man on the now famous targets in Japan. The historical details of the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer’’s leadership, and Allied strategic decisions leading to the only two uses of atomic weapons in combat in the history of the world are adequately presented in a reasonable time for successful use in the college classroom. The recently released PBS film Race for the Superbomb carries us through the invention of the hydrogen bomb.

To study the consequences to the world today of Japan’’s unconditional surrender to the Allies and the subsequent rebuilding of Japan, TPC offers Reinventing Japan. In this moving film about Japanese suffering and General Douglas MacArthur’’s attempt to create a new Japan, the student can see the elements of future Japanese technological achievements. Under the direction of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), a new constitution for Japan is written. Business and government leaders with strong ties to the ""Old Japan"" are fired, new Japanese entrepreneurs are encouraged, labor unrest is manipulated, and a conservative alliance of government, labor, and business emerges. Japan develops into a permanent base for American political and military influence in Asia and the Pacific.

Inside Japan, Inc., also from TPC, brings us to the decade of the 1990’’s, showing the success and current challenges of a technological Japan firmly committed to a worldwide market that achieves success through its influential Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), which promotes continuous development of a Japanese industry that is able to lead worldwide consumers to become faithful customers. Serious social conflict still exists in a conservative society which has labor and women’’s movements with deeply committed core leadership and membership. National survival tied to industrial success in a government controlled by regional, and, thus, usually, rural interests make the Japanese a very political people. The instructor must provide an update on current problems in Japan.

Asia and other concerns of the course offer many opportunities for dealing with current events in the classroom. The course World Wide Web (WWW) site is available to the student and instructor for this purpose [14] and, by the nature of the course, this site is always being improved.

The final sections of Impact II focus on interaction among government, culture, the economy, and the environment. We enter a part of the course that involves less study of history and more emphasis on current issues. A study of the great impact of one woman on the use of pesticides is available through the film (or book) Silent Spring. It should be essential viewing in a course like this and can be used together with the recent Frontline video Fooling with Nature. Another study that deals with the complex interaction among scientists, government, and the public concerning nuclear issues of great importance to humankind, especially in relation to energy and the environment, is a recent film Atoms for Peace. Although the title reflects a dominant theme of the Eisenhower era, the material is current and shows the stalemate that exists in current nuclear energy development in the United States while Japan appears to be headed toward a leadership role in the peaceful uses of atomic energy in the twenty-first century, which suggests that it will also be a ""Pacific"" century. The problems in the development of nuclear energy are considered in greater detail in the new PBS film Meltdown at Three Mile Island. Half Lives presents the nuclear waste dilemma [15].

Energy and the environment are treated in an entertaining way in episodes on heating and on the internal combustion engine in TSLM. Historical backgrounds are reasonably thorough although current topics and problems are presented in a general way, requiring the instructor to supplement the films with appropriate current information. This is true also of some of the films in the ten-episode series Race to Save the Planet (RTSTP). The first episode, already mentioned above, contains a summary of late twentieth-century environmental, agricultural, and energy concerns. Some films in this series are inappropriate since they tend to be overly repetitive or are a little out of date. The episodes More forLess and It Needs Political Decisions survey several countries in the world that are dealing creatively with environmental issues. The approach in these two episodes is to consider general principles of wise use of resources, prudent avoidance of unnecessary environmental risks, local determination of methods of solution, and economic development focused on sustainable industries. Population management through birth education rather than abortion is dealt with in some of these country studies. Serving the global perspectives component of a university’’s general education mission, these films guide us through significant programs for energy and the environment in Brazil, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Sweden, India, and Denmark. Such programs can serve as model human projects for future agricultural, environmental, and energy solutions. Only One Atmosphere is an elementary though useful summary of theories of global warming and the greenhouse effect.

A 1999 PBS series called Journey to Planet Earth covers some of the material found in RTSTP. There are three episodes: Rivers of Destiny, The Urban Explosion, and Land of Plenty, Land of Want. Portions of each of these can be used in Impact II and some of The Urban Explosion seems appropriate for Impact I. However, Journey to Planet Earth is presented at the high school level and the instructor will need to supplement it with current facts and figures appropriate to a university audience. Nevertheless, these episodes are a welcome addition to the set of resources available for these courses.

The Battle for the Great Plains, hosted by Jane Fonda, brings agricultural, ecological, Native American, and economic issues home to students in the Upper Midwest and the West in general. Confronted by external critics, resident owners offer their claim that the land is better through their intervention or stewardship. Fonda showcases organic methods while raising questions about the sustainability of a system that is dependent on agricultural and environmental management methods that make intensive use of herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, or irrigation. The highlighting of positive efforts by local residents is good news in a discipline in which hope is often a stranger.

What the human species has done with the entire planet is summarized by David Attenborough in the great film New Worlds in the LP series. We see the scars left by past generations, we hear stories of species extinct centuries or millennia ago, but we sense that, even in the midst of ambitious human projects, hope for the future is justified if provision is made to sustain all living things in the path of human progress. Attenborough advocates a three-part proposal in regard to the exploitation of the natural world that summarizes some of the environmental concerns discussed in Impact II: (1) ""we must not exploit natural stocks of animals and plants so intensively that they are unable to renew themselves, and ultimately disappear""; (2) ""we must not so grossly change the face of the earth that we interfere with the basic processes that sustain life, and that could happen if we continue destroying the earth’’s green cover of forests and if we continue using the oceans as a dumping ground for our poisons""; and (3) ""we must do our utmost to maintain the diversity of the earth’’s animals and plants"" [16].

General Ethical Concerns

General ethical concerns appropriate to Impact I and II, especially the human risks of industrial development and technological warfare, can be found in the films Knowledge Or Certainty from AOM and Heroic Materialism from Kenneth Clark’’s Civilisation. The PBS/WNET program Religion & Ethics Newsweekly is a good source of current material (see WWW site and viewer’’s guide [17]). A religious perspective on some of the issues involved in Impact I and II can be found in the books by Monsma [18] and Sider [19]. Especially helpful are Sider’’s ""Seven Short Principles for a Political Philosophy"" [19]. With all the resources available, six semester hours (three per course) barely allows time for even half of what’’s described in this paper since every film is an occasion for instructor critique, class discussion, presentation of additional details or related issues, and presentation of current data. Some sources of additional information particularly relevant to environmental ethics include V. Harms’’ Almanac of the Environment [20], J. Seager’’s very useful book The Earth Atlas [21], which surveys world environmental problems, and some very fine material on environmental legislation from an engineering perspective in Engineering Ethics, by Harris, Pritchard and Rabins [22]. Further information is available through links provided at the Impact II World Wide Web site [14].

Conclusions

Courses on the history of technology and its social impact serve as gateways to the realities of life and work. Video and print resources are available to serve almost any aspect of these courses [23]-[24]. Informed use of these materials should enhance the effectiveness of the educational experience. Through these courses students can learn to understand the potential that technology has for changing society in unforeseen ways.

2) Rogers, D. and P. Ribeiro, ""Ethics, Technology, and Society in the Heartland: Their Role in Engineering Education,"" Proceedings, 1996 International Symposium on Technology and Society, Princeton, New Jersey, June 1996, pp. 172-176.

9) The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation World Wide Web site provides a biography of Anne Murrow Lindbergh at: http://www.mtn.org/lindfdtn/amlbio.html . Her early books include North to the Orient and Listen! The Wind.

23) Many of the videos mentioned in this article are available through the World Wide Web sites of IMAX, PBS (includes NOVA), WGBH (includes American Experience and Frontline videos), A&E (includes the History Channel and the Biography Channel), ""amazon.com"" (has a good video search section), and ""discovery.com"" (includes The Learning Channel). Dakota Exile is available from PBS affilitate KTCA-TV (http://www.ktca.org). TSLM is available from Lucerne Media, 37 Ground Pine Road, Morris Plains, NJ 07950. RTSTP and TPC can be purchased from The Annenberg/CPB Multimedia Collection, Dept. CA95, P.O. Box 2345, S. Burlington, VT 05407-2345.

24) Films for the Humanities & Sciences (P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053) has a large collection of videos available for purchase or rental. The WWW site is at: http://www.films.com .